Drifter is an open-world sandbox space trading game with a procedurally-generated galaxy 100,000 light years across made up of tens of thousands of star systems to explore and features an original soundtrack by composer Danny Baranowsky.

User reviews:

Overall:

Mixed
(148 reviews)
- 69% of the 148 user reviews for this game are positive.

Early Access Game

Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops.

Note: This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you
should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

“Hello!

Because Drifter is an open-world sandbox game we feel like it’s a good fit for Early Access. The game is already enjoyable and relatively bug free, however, it is missing a number of features that we feel should be in the game before calling it 1.0. We hope that this way you’ll be able to have fun with the game while it’s still being worked on; this will give us the ability to create the best game possible based on your support and feedback.

Buy Drifter

October 8

Drifter 0.7.0 is now live! This is the first release in the 0.7.x series, codename "Defiant".

Note: We've got a new trailer and new screenshots up on the store page, so you should definitely check those out!

Because I’m going to be in Seattle next week for Steam Dev Days I really didn’t want to delay updates any further so I decided to go ahead release 0.7.0! We managed to get the bulk of the initial 0.7.0 update done and Material Synthesis is about 90% of the way there. So the plan is for me to complete Material Synthesis and add it in 0.7.1 in 1-2 weeks time after I get back. In the meantime there’s a ton of new stuff in 0.7.0 and the game is looking amazing, even if I do say so myself.

We’ve spent a lot of time filing down rough edges and generally polishing the game to where we’re very happy with how it looks and feels. There’s still some work to be done but it’s much closer to feeling “done” as of 0.7.0. In addition to an all new starfield background we’ve improved the look and feel of the UI in a number of areas, station interiors are now more interactive and all of the current items and equipment in the game now have icons. That said, the full list of what’s new and improved is below!

One big change I feel is important to note is I removed the old controller UI interaction system as I was never particularly happy with it and it was proving to be difficult to maintain. So going forward the controller will use what I’m calling a “joypointer” where the left analog stick moves a virtual pointer. Pressing the “GUI Accept” button will click buttons and holding it will let you drag things like lists and sliders. Also if you press the “GUI Cancel” button it will allow you to quickly leave station areas and close menus instead of hunting for the close button. It’s still not 100% where it needs to be but it already works a lot better than the old system and we’ll be improving it in the coming weeks.

About This Game

Drifter is an open-world sandbox space trading game with a procedurally-generated galaxy 100,000 light years across made up of tens of thousands of star systems to explore and features an original soundtrack by composer Danny Baranowsky. Take on the role of a spaceship captain attempting to eke out a living among the stars by trading goods between star systems, hunting pirates for bounties, mining asteroids for valuable ore, or even becoming a pirate yourself. The choice is yours!